That one friend was Paul Gauguin - a famous painter who Van Gogh looked up to. The two artists lived and painted together in Arles for two months. They had “exc

That one friend was Paul Gauguin - a famous painter who Van Gogh looked up to. The two artists lived and painted together in Arles for two months. They had “excessively electric” debates about art that they emerged from exhausted. When Van Gogh could sense that Gauguin was going to leave, they had a heated argument. That night Van Gogh had a psychotic episode and cut off his own ear with a razor blade. Gauguin left right afterwards.